Video Details

ISBN 139781783558766

Course Length

2 hours 13 minutes

Video Description

GameMaker: Studio is a fairly cheap, but solid entry route into game development. Due to a low startup cost, cheap asset pipelines, and the ability to publish games without paying royalties, it's a great way for novice game developers to produce their first games without having to first learn a complex programming language. An inbuilt and easy-to-understand programming language called Game Maker Language (GML) can be used to program your games and create advanced systems with ease.

Building a 2D Game with GameMaker: Studio will demonstrate everything from the main interface and programming to creating an artificial intelligence, teaching you everything you need to know in order to create your own games in GameMaker: Studio.

This course is a step-by-step walkthrough that will showcase GameMaker: Studio and Game Maker Language (GML) through a series of small, practical examples. These examples consist of concise videos that demonstrate the essential programming techniques and concepts that you'll need to get started in game development.

You'll begin with an overview of the interface to familiarize yourself with it, and steadily work your way towards building a platformer with all the usual trimmings such as a score counter, health monitor, enemies, and even artificial intelligence.

You will then learn about things such as animating sprites, using objects, best practices when creating resources, and much more, all of which leads up to creating a platformer game. Building a 2D Game with GameMaker: Studio covers everything you need to use GameMaker: Studio and will lay the groundwork for future games of your own.

Style and Approach

Packt video courses are designed to cover the breadth of the topic in short, hands-on, task-based videos. Each course is divided into short manageable sections, so you can watch the whole thing or jump to the bit you need. The focus is on practical instructions and screencasts showing you how to get the job done.

This course is a step-by-step walkthrough that will showcase GameMaker: Studio and Game Maker Language (GML) through a series of small, practical examples. You'll begin with an overview of the UI and interface to familiarize yourself with how things work, and steadily work your way towards building a platformer.

Table of Contents

The GameMaker: Studio Interface

The New Project Window

The Main Interface

The Resource Interface

GameMaker: Studio's Preferences

GameMaker's Drop-down Menu

The Basics of Game Maker Language

A First Look at Game Maker Language

Game Maker Language Functions

The If Statement

For and While Loops

Creating Objects and Assigning Properties

The Basic Use of Objects

Using Sprites with Objects

Basic Animation

Animating with GameMaker: Studio

Animated Sprites and Objects

Movement and Object Interaction

Creating Movements

Object Collisions and Interactions

Buttons and Changing Levels

Advanced Movement

Setting Up Stats for the Player

Coding Advanced Movements

Sprite Control

Implementing Gameplay Features

Creating an Objective

Obstacles and Death

Creating Enemies

Health and Scores

Creating a Simple AI

States and Variables

Coding States

Attack and Death

What You Will Learn

Familiarize yourself with the GameMaker: Studio interface

Program using Game Maker Language (GML)

Animate sprites in GameMaker: Studio

Link key presses to object behavior

Program advanced movement including gravity, friction, and jumps

Add a HUD with a score counter and health monitor

Create enemies, obstacles, and objectives for your games

Create an artificial intelligence and a more challenging game

Authors

Nathan Auckett

Nathan Auckett is an independent game developer and a moderator at @gamejolt. He is an advanced GameMaker user and has been using the software for over 7 years now. He started using GameMaker during its seventh version and has been using the built-in programming language ever since to create his own games. In 2012, he began creating small tutorials on various topics in GameMaker and has since then created over 50 tutorials helping people achieve a variety of different tasks in GameMaker.

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